Exchange Traded Fund - All posts tagged Exchange Traded Fund

It will, the Financial Times reported today, citing the World Gold Council.

“We do expect that you will see potentially more than one physical gold ETF in 2013,” said Marcus Grubb, managing director for investment at the WGC, a lobby group backed by the mining industry.

The launch of gold ETFs in China has been hotly anticipated by some gold bulls, who believe it could trigger a new wave of demand for the precious metal.

If the report is true, the new ETF would join others like SPDR Gold Shares (GLD), ETFS Asia Gold Trust ETF (AGOL) and ETFS Physical Swiss Gold Shares ETF (SGOL), which are available in the U.S.

Goldbugs hope that a new ETF could renew investment demand for the precious metal–and with China particularly fond of gold–it looks set to be the world’s largest gold importer–perhaps it might. According to the World Gold Council:

Chinese demand was flat year-on–year, reflecting the impact of economic slowdown. However looking at Q4, total demand was up 1% on the previous quarter to 202.5t. Jewellery demand was137.0t up 1% on Q4 2011 and investment demand was 65.5t, up 2% on the previous year. These increases may reflect the fact that the economic slowdown in China appears to have been shorter than expected.

The price of gold has dropped 4.8% during the past three months, and currently trades at about $1646.80 an ounce, according to FactSet.

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Emerging markets have been synonymous with growth, but the outlook for individual nations is constantly changing. Countries from Brazil and Russia to Turkey face challenges including infrastructure bottlenecks, credit issues and political shifts. Barrons.com’s Emerging Markets Daily blog analyzes news, data and research out of emerging markets beyond Asia to help readers navigate the investment landscape.

Barron’s veteran Dimitra DeFotis has been blogging about emerging market investing since traveling to India and Turkey. Based in New York, she previously wrote for Barron’s about U.S. equity investing, including cover stories and roundtables on energy themes. Dimitra was among the first digital journalists at the Chicago Tribune and started her career as a police reporter at the Daily Herald in the Chicago suburbs. Dimitra holds degrees from the University of Illinois and Columbia University, where she was a Knight-Bagehot Fellow in the business and journalism schools. She studies multiple languages and photography.